Gender differences in neuropsychological test performance among people with negative schizophrenia
Date
2014-03-26
Authors
Roberts, Kathrine Ashley
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Abstract
Gender differences in certain frontal lobe functions were assessed in 40 people (20 men
and 20 women) with negative Schizophrenia and 40 people (20 men and 20 women)
without any history of psychiatric illnesses. The results indicated that there were few
statistically significant differences for certain frontal lobe functions for the men and the
women in the Schizophrenic group. One explanation that was provided for these results
was that the lack of sex differences in certain frontal functions may be pathognomonic to
Schizophrenia, as statistically significant gender differences were found in the Control
group on particular tasks that measure frontal lobe functions. The second component of
this research compared the results of certain frontal lobe functions in the negative
Schizophrenic cohort (N = 40) and the Control group (N = 40). It was found that on most
of the measures of frontal lobe functioning the negative Schizophrenic group, displayed
greater impairment in these functions than the Control group. Such results provide
further evidence that many people with negative Schizophrenia have deficits in frontal •
lobe functioning. The results of this research a re preliminary, as there appears to be no
other study of its kind that has been conducted in South Africa. Thus, it is suggested that
this research should be replicated in order to determine whether such differences do exist
for men and women with Schizophrenia, as such results have implications for aetiology,
prognosis and treatment.